PHOENIX — Las Vegas coach Becky Hammon had a succinct summary of her final play call Wednesday.
“We give the ball to A’ja and get out of the way,” Hammon said.
As it often does, A’ja Wilson made it work.
The league MVP hit a 7-foot fadeaway jumper with three-10ths of a second remaining to cap her third double-double of the series and the Las Vegas Aces survived a furious Phoenix comeback for a 90-88 victory over the host Mercury in Game 3 of the WNBA playoffs Wednesday.
“I feel like, in that moment, if a coach has to tell me what to do I’m not doing my job,” Wilson said. “She just drew up a play, It wasn’t really even a play. I’m appreciative that Becky trusts me in those moments.
“Those are playoff basketball moments, those are the moments that you live for. I’m glad I was able to show up.”
Wilson took an entry pass from Chelsea Gray and shot from the left side of the lane over Alyssa Thomas for the game-winner.
The Aces, who blew a 17-point lead in the fourth quarter before recovering, moved within one game of their third WNBA title in the last four seasons.
Wilson had 34 points and 14 rebounds, Jackie Young had 21 points and Jewell Loyd added 16 to give the Aces a 3-0 lead in the league’s first best-of-seven championship series.
Thomas had 14 points, 12 rebounds and nine assists for the Mercury. DeWanna Bonner scored a team-high 25 points and Satou Sabally had 24 points before leaving due to an apparent head injury with 4:26 remaining.
After Wilson’s basket, the Mercury inbounded the ball on their end of the floor and Thomas found Bonner at the foul line extended. Bonner’s catch-and-shoot drew iron but did not fall.
The Mercury play host to Game 4 on Friday, with history stacked against them. The 1942 Toronto Maple Leafs are the only major North American professional sports team in history to come back from a 3-0 deficit and win a championship series.
“I don’t know how many teams have come back from 0-3,” Mercury coach Nate Tibbetts said. “Not many. I’m not going to sugar coat that. We have a tough road ahead, but we have to take it one game at a time.
“This group has been a group that has continued to compete at a high level. We have a certain level of pride that we are going to keep fighting.”
Aces guard Chelsea Gray had 11 points, five assists, three steals and three blocks on her 33rd birthday for the Aces, who had eight steals and eight blocked shots.
The Aces opened a quick 21-8 lead in the first quarter keyed by Loyd’s four 3-pointers and extended a 12-point halftime lead to 17 entering the fourth quarter, relying on Wilson in the post and perimeter shooting from Loyd, Gray and Young.
They led 82-72 after Wilson’s basket before the Mercury rallied after the loss of Sabally, who was down on the floor for several minutes and helped while holding her head after colliding with an Aces’ defender on a drive to the basket. She did not return. There was no update on her status after the game.
Copper took the two free throws instead, and she scored 11 straight Phoenix points to gradually close the gap. Bonner tied the game at 86-86 — the first tie since 29-29 — on a long 3-pointer with 1:41 left. After Gray scored on a drive, Bonner made two free throws at 1:10 to re-tie it at 88-88.
“It’s a game of runs,” Hammon said. “We threw a pretty good punch coming out, they crawled back. We threw another punch. They crawled back. You have to give them some credit for getting hot and giving themselves a chance to win at the end. However, I thought we had control of that game for the majority of that lock
“That’s a desperate team. They understood they had to win that one. That’s what it probably felt like in that fourth quarter, was that desperation. We were able to withstand that storm and that frenzy of pressure.”
Wilson lost the ball on a dribble to the hoop and Thomas missed a driving layup to set up the final sequence.
“It’s how we should be playing from the start,” Thomas said of the fourth quarter. “It took us too long to wake up and play defense. The second half is our basketball and how we play. Shame on us for not coming out the way we need to come out.”
–Jack Magruder, Field Level Media
